Breaking a window will definitely be out when the Yahoo!Xtra Northern Knights (and an all-star line-up of ring-ins) hit Hamilton’s Hood Street this Wednesday. The team will play a public game of street cricket in the city’s premier entertainment district as they launch into their HRV Cup Twenty20 season.

The WAIKATO TIMES HOOD STREET CRICKET EVENT will run between 4pm and 6pm and the public is warmly invited to head along to Hood Street to watch and join in with the free entertainment, meet and play against the Knights stars and other local sporting celebrities and be in to win tickets to their opening HRV Cup match set for Seddon Park the following evening.

Cricket fans will also get their first opportunity to meet Australia’s Brad Hodge, one of the Yahoo!Xtra Northern Knights’ trio of star import players newly arrived for the imminent HRV Cup campaign. Big-hitting cricket legend Lance Cairns will also be among the local sporting stars getting stuck into the street cricket fun.

Northern Districts Cricket Marketing and Communications Coordinator Julie Taylor says the event is a fantastic chance for people to do something that’s never been done before - play cricket in the street against their Yahoo!Xtra Northern Knights heroes.

“There will be heaps of chances for people to win spot prizes and tickets to the game as well,” says Taylor, “and people of all ages are welcome. Hood Street is going to be absolutely buzzing. It’s going to be an unforgettable, unique afternoon and the Yahoo!Xtra Northern Knights players themselves are really looking forward to it and to mixing and playing with their very own supporters.”

Hood Street will be closed to traffic especially for the first ever Waikato Times Hood Street Cricket Event, in association with CBD Corner Pub, a Hood Street hotspot and Northern Districts sponsor. The game will take centre stage on the road itself while CBD Corner Pub, all of Hood Street’s retailers and over 16 other bars and restaurants get into the spirit with great deals for the crowd.